I have composted slaughter waste in a compost pile I built and turned every two days for the first week. It cannot be more than 10% of the pile contents. Everything is gone but the largest bones. That is how you get blood/bone/feather nutrients and elements into your garden! Hot compost that is actively managed to keep it aerobic. It doesn't hurt to send your worms through the pile after it cools off

After taking Dr. Elaine Ingham's couse I have been able to take winter animal bedding that was producing ammonia and turn it into something wonderful that smells like the forest after a rain storm. A question for David Goodman, what is your favorite composting story? What did it smell like in the end? Do you use a microscope to confirm/analyze what you are seeing at the macro-level?

Inline with Dr. Elaine Ingham's composting, you really do need a more balanced compost with manure (or other high nitrogen source) consisting of no more than 10% of the starting material.

My secret sauce for adding green (because I too lack green material) is to sprout a bag of oats, a bag of sunflower seeds, and to add a bag of pelletized alfalfa. The rinse water from the sprouts is loaded with bacteria and bacteria food which is the component you are missing. The alfalfa is bacteria food. You are trying to feed bacteria and feed fungal elements. They are the source food for critters higher up on the soil life food chain.

I am writing to report on the first edibles of spring that are emerging. There are hundreds of acorns just starting to sprout. Just like sprouting almonds, chia, or any nut or seed, the nutritional values for sprouts is higher than the dormant form. I would guess that much of the tannins leached out over winter.

My planted perennial french sorrel has emerged and is a family favorite that we fight over